Yatseniuk: Ukraine will become an integral part of common EU energy policy

It is critical for the European Community to have a common energy policy and Ukraine will become an integral part of it.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Arsenii Yatseniuk stated on Friday, Nov. 6 in the course of the Riga Conference dedicated to geo-economics, Censor.NET reports citing the press service of the Government.

"It is critical for the European Union to have a common energy policy. And Ukraine will become an integral part of the common energy policy. It seems that the EU has spent a lot of time developing actual common energy policy. You have lost billions. Russia, as always, plays games. The Russian Gazprom sets the prices for different countries under different formulas," the PM stressed.

"If you have a strong common energy policy, you will never let anyone playing these games with you," Yatseniuk addressed to the European partners.

That is why, according to him, Europe should seriously consider the proposal of liquefied natural gas deliveries from the United States to the EU. "It will create additional competition in the market and will certainly have a positive impact on prices," said the head of the Ukrainian Government.

Yatseniuk also reminded that Russia is implementing the Nord Stream-2 project in order to bypass Ukraine and deprive it of $2 billion annual income. Besides, other transit countries will also be deprived of revenues including Slovakia, with a probable loss of $0.8 billion return and Poland with $0.3 billion return. "At the same time, this project will allow creation of a "gas valve" in Europe, which will be administered by Gazprom and certain Western countries to exercise control over prices in the EU," Yatseniuk said. "This project has nothing to do with the energy independence of the European Union, or with EU energy policy. Nord Stream 2 is the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian project," he stressed.

The head of the Ukrainian Government noted that Ukraine has the largest gas transmission system in Europe with the largest volume of underground storage facilities. In addition, the Ukrainian gas-transport system is "the fastest and cheapest way".

Yatseniuk reminded that the Ukrainian parliament has passed a special law that allows only the EU and the U.S. companies to acquire up to 49 percent of the operating system of the Ukrainian GTS, "We are ready to jointly administer and upgrade the Ukrainian gas transport system. Let'sdoittogether."

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